Jeff – That’s a tough comparison choice since we still enjoy both. The each have a unique feeling to them. Survive feels more prone to an ‘attack’ type mood toward opponents. But even though you also get to attack other players with the pirate ship in Black Fleet, there’s more going on with shipping cargo so it feels like there are more strategic choices. That’s why we still have both games. 🙂

Clare – We haven’t played Jamaica before (though it has been on our ‘want to play’) list for a while. So we can’t really draw a comparison.

Mauricio – That’s great to hear about your experiences with Black Fleet. In our house, there’s a lot of “go after dad” strategies regardless of whether I’m in the lead or not. 🙂

The age recommendation may be due to the long text in some of the cards and the skill needed to chain them effectively, but mainly because the game contains lots of small pieces and rating your game for ages younger than 10 requires extra safety tests and paperwork (this is an industry standard). That’s the reason why many publishers rate their games for ages way older than most of us consider appropriate.

I’ve played this game with my 8 year-old daughter without problems (you can also give younger children the 10p victory card while you play with the 20p), and it’s among my wife’s favorite games. But as always, every kid is different both in taste for specific games/settings and in their ability to play them, so your mileage may vary.

I’ve not really seen the 1st player advantage thing in our house mainly because in our family we play with the idea that “everyone goes to get the currently winning player” (and no one gets mad about it), so if you are suddenly winning then you are gonna get attacked A LOT, and you better start planning some sweet skill/card combos if you want to stay ahead. Most of the time we get at least two people buying the victory card on the same round.

Thanks for posting this variant David. The main reason my copy of Black Fleet is still in shrink wrap is because I haven’t gotten 3+ people yet to play it and my kids aren’t quite to the point where their reading comprehension is good enough to understand. Maybe I will be able to try it with my kids first.

Aaron – Good luck with you game design. And we hope you’re enjoying Zooloretto.